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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

South Korea and the U.S. Nuclear Umbrella: Extended Deterrence in the Post-Cold War World

Since 1953, the United States has maintained a formal extended
deterrence commitment to protect South Korea. The guarantee
included a mutual security treaty that formalized the U.S. pledge
and basing troops close to the border as a sign of U.S.
determination to defend its ally from another attack from the
North. The U.S. commitment also entailed the inclusion of South
Korea under the U.S. nuclear umbrella whereby Washington vowed to
use nuclear weapons to deter, and if need be, defeat an attack. The
United States never renounced the first use of nuclear weapons so
that a nuclear response could follow a conventional attack or a
nuclear strike. For South Korea, the umbrella also included the
deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on the peninsula. However,
these weapons were removed from South Korea in 1991. The nuclear
umbrella has long been a part of U.S. extended deterrence in East
Asia, yet there have always been some troubling aspects of this
strategy, both in Asia and in Europe. This talk will examine the
history of the U.S. nuclear umbrella for South Korea, the role the
umbrella plays in South Korean and U.S. security planning, and
questions regarding the credibility of the commitment.